Olivia Lane: Spreading sunshine, one song at a time

Olivia Lane just turned 25, and although it may seem like she has it all figured out, she admits she doesn't. The second track on her new EP, "Quarter Life Crisis" is the most autobiographical song on this EP, according to her. "Once you graduate school, and when you're in reality and real life, there are no grades anymore," Lane said. "You're not trying to get an A+ in reality. So it's sort of an adjustment for those six months to basically two years after you graduate school and you're like, 'what do I want to do with my life?' The more adults I'm hanging out with, it's like, you know what, the only conclusion that I've got is that no one has it figured out."

​Lane's brand new self-titled EP is a reflection of where she is in life right now. "The last couple of years I've been on the road and really pursuing my dreams of wanting to be a country artist," Lane said, "and I think this EP is a more mature reflection of the life I've been living and the artist I want to be."

To pick the songs that made the record, Lane tested them out on the road. "I think the truest test of a song is to see what people respond to in the audience," Lane said. Two of the songs on the EP carried over from last years acoustic mixtape Heart Unlocked : "Lightning" and single "Make My Own Sunshine," but she's been playing other new songs live as well, and the seven that made the EP were "the [songs] that people were responding to and I just couldn't shake them."

Some of the highlights of the EP are "Make My Own Sunshine," which Lane calls her "anthem," and "She Fits." Lane says that "She Fits" is her favorite song on the record, and the most "sentimental" song. "I actually brought that idea into a write and my co-writers were like 'what?'," Lane said. "'You want to write a song called 'She Fits?' And I was like, 'trust me guys, it's going to be good, just hear me out. This is a story that happened to me.' And I basically just told them the story of a relationship that I had gone through." 

The song tells the story of Lane's ex-boyfriend who found someone and settled down. Lane talked about the "bittersweet" feeling of the song, "like could I have fit his life? Should I have fit his life? And coming to peace with the fact like, no, I went after my dreams I did the right thing, we both did the right thing. And he's found somebody and she fits his life." ​

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On social media, Lane has made it her goal to spread sunshine instead of hate, an initiative driven by "Make My Own Sunshine" being a single. "As I was listening to my song and really living with it for a couple months and it was a single at radio, I was like you know what? I need to actively [spread sunshine] on social media, so instead of going on your phone and seeing something crazy happening, I just want somebody to get on their phone and say 'oh Olivia's trying to promote smiles,'" Lane said. "And so I wanted to really come out with the idea of really promoting positivity on social media, and what started was the Sunshine Movement, to do something happy for yourself and for someone else."

​Lane is a singer as well as a songwriter, and she co-wrote all but one song on the EP, "My Heartache." "Me and a couple of writers who were all part of the same publishing company, we were all on a writers retreat, which is basically a bunch of writers go away for a weekend and you just write, write, write," Lane said. "And while I was upstairs writing a song, some other writers that I write with a bunch were writing another song downstairs." That song was "My Heartache," "When I am listening to outside songs I have to have an instant emotional response to what I'm listening to, as soon as I hear what they're talking about," Lane said. "And I had that with 'My Heartache.'"

The sound of "My Heartache" and the EP in general has an edgy sound, country but also influenced by so many other genres. "I'm just a music lover in general, so I have influences all the way from Patsy Cline, Sara Evans, Jennifer Nettles, Michael Jackson to Katy Perry. So I listen to a bunch of music and I think all of those influences are all in a big melting pot on this EP. My producer is Ilya Toshinskiy and he's been a huge, huge influence on me. He plays every string instrument possible, and we came up with a sound, which started with "Steal Me Away," my first official single to the country music world, and it matured into this EP. I think it's just a bunch of influences that I grew up with and it's sort of pop, country, and a bunch of influences on there."

Lane has been on the road basically non-stop for the last couple months, but she's still going. "We've got a lot of fun acoustic videos coming out on YouTube, and I'm also teaming up with Radio Disney Country to release a bunch of content around the EP, and also promoting the Sunshine Movement," Lane said. "So yeah we're just going to keep being on the road and playing the new EP and putting content out."

Check out Olivia's touring schedule:
OLIVIA LANE AT BATON ROUGE RIVER CENTER | BATON ROUGE, LA | 8/20/16
OLIVIA LANE AT THE PALACE THEATER | BRYAN, TX | 8/25/16
OLIVIA LANE AT RIO GRANDE VALLEY LIVE STOCK SHOW GROUNDS | MERCEDES, TX | 8/27/16
FREDERICK’S “IN THE STREET FESTIVAL” | FREDERICK, MD | 9/10/16
OLIVIA LANE AT THE SADDLERACK | FREEMONT, CA | 9/25/16
DEKALB COUNTY FREE FALL FAIR PRESENTED BY K105 | AUBURN, IN | 9/28/16
OLIVIA LANE AT WILLIE'S LOCALLY KNOWN | LEXINGTON, KY | 9/30/16
OLIVIA LANE AT BOOTZ SALOON | OAK CREEK, WI | 10/08/16
THE PALACE THEATRE | STAMFORD, CT | 10/21/16
OLIVIA LANE AT DOGTOWN ROADHOUSE | FLOYD, VA | 10/22/16
OLIVIA LANE AT MELISSA ETHERIDGE CRUISE | TAMPA, FL | 10/31/16
OLIVIA LANE AT HENRICO THEATRE | HENRICO, VA | 5/19/17

Buy Olivia Lane's EP here.

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